Skeptics of a centralized digital currency are sounding the alarm after recent moves from the Biden administration toward developing a system of "financial slavery."
A spectrum of critics, from Republicans like Ron DeSantis to anti-vaccine activist and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have shared their concerns that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could supplant physical cash and become a surveillance tool.
For many, the experience of draconian COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates is a reason to fear government abuse.
"A CBDC tied to digital ID and social credit score will allow the government to freeze your assets or limit your spending to approved vendors if you fail to comply with arbitrary diktats, i.e. vaccine mandates," Kennedy warned.
The Fed just announced it will introduce its “FedNow” Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in July. CBDCs grease the slippery slope to financial slavery and political tyranny.
While cash transactions are anonymous, a #CBDC will allow the government to surveil all our private…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 5, 2023
Kennedy speculated that the government would capitalize on instability in the banking system to introduce "financial slavery." For his part, DeSantis introduced legislation to block a centralized digital currency, saying Biden seeks "surveillance and control" through the money supply.
Such warnings have been widely dismissed in the mainstream media as conspiracy theories, despite clear indications that the federal government is mobilizing toward a digital currency under Biden.
A Treasury Department official confirmed in March that the government is actively developing technology to implement a digital dollar. Nellie Lang, undersecretary for domestic finance, shared the plans in a speech to the Atlantic Council, a liberal think tank.
“Even as policy deliberations continue, we are engaging in the technological development of a CBDC so that we would be able to move forward rapidly if a CBDC were determined to be in the national interest,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is launching a digital instant payment system in July called FedNow.
The Federal Reserve said that FedNow is "neither a form of currency nor a step toward eliminating any form of payment, including cash."
Numerous "fact checkers" have taken that claim at face value, insisting there is no possible link between FedNow and a digital dollar -- despite the obvious potential for the former to lay the groundwork for the latter.
Kennedy, Jr. warned that transactions through FedNow could be just the "first step" on a "slippery slope" toward a cashless system.
NBC News, a reliable mouthpiece of the surveillance state, published an article dismissing fears over FedNow and centralized digital currency as overblown. In typical obtuse "fact checker" fashion, the authors cite the Federal Reserve's failure to explicitly signal an "intention to throttle transactions."
If recent history is any guide, the very people now mocking "conspiracy theories" about a digital dollar will soon be saying, "we've always had digital dollars."
